An official complaint has been lodged to the council after a campaigner and lead councillor clashed at a meeting where the council announced its progress in finalising its delayed accounts.

Campaigner Colin Lee asked the Audit & Governance committee several questions about the council’s auditing processes but was refused a meeting with Jackie Yates, head of resources.

Councillor Tony Page, deputy leader of RBC, told Mr Lee he should stand for election if he wanted to meet with Ms Yates.

Mr Lee responded: “P*ss off” to which Mr Page said: “You haven’t got the guts to. Coward.”

Jason Collie, who was attending the meeting to hear about the council’s attempts to answer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests on time, has sent a formal complaint to the council about Cllr Page’s comments.

He said: “Whilst the comments were not directed at me, I found, as an attendee, Cllr Page’s conduct absolutely disgraceful for an elected member.

“I believe Cllr Page has breached two sections of the code and possibly a third.

“He was rude (6.1.2) and in my view he bullied Mr Lee (6.1.4).

“He is a senior figure in the council at a committee meeting in front of other councillors and officers while Mr Lee is a member of the public.

“There is a clear imbalance of power in that situation.

“I would submit Cllr Page may have breached 6.1.6 in that due to his clearly audible comments he may done something “which compromises or is likely to compromise the impartiality of those who work for, or on behalf of, the authority”.

"He made these comments in front of officers and councillors that Mr Lee may have future dealings with and may therefore have affected their view of him.”

Councillor Page, responding to Mr Collie’s criticism, said: “If Mr Lee wants to spend time with us get elected. He has never stood for election.

“I stand by my comment. “

READ MORE: Reading's Garrard Street and NCP car park to close for three weekends

At the meeting, assistant director of finance Matthew Davis revealed that the council has improved its FOI response rate to 87 per cent at the meeting.

The council has been criticised by Mr Collie for failing to respond to a quarter of FOIs within the statutory 20-working-day deadline last year.

RBC also confirmed that auditor EY is expected to begin the formal audit for the council’s delayed 2017/18 and 2018/19 accounts.

The 2016/17 accounts were published in July after a two-year delay at an added cost of at least £327,000.